RIDGWAY – The Curwensville Area High School boys basketball team ran into unbeaten Ridgway Wednesday evening in Ridgway, and after it was over the Elkers (8-0) remained perfect on the year with a 52-32 victory over the Golden Tide.
Curwensville head coach Matt Wassil, although not pleased with the outcome, still found something, as always, positive to say about his team afterwards, commenting, “Even though we lost by 20 points the score is not indicative of how we played at times. I thought we played well in spots and a few times we got back in the game before Ridgway pulled away in the fourth quarter.”
The Elkers jumped out to a 4-0 lead on back to back buckets by Johnny Mitchell before Jake Terry of the Tide made it 4-2.
Neil MacDonald made it 12-4 in favor of Ridgway with 2:50 to play in the first quarter before the Elkers took a 19-6 lead into the second eight minutes
Mitchell had eight of his game high 17 points in the opening stanza to lead Ridgway.
The second eight minutes was a battle that the Golden Tide won 9-6 to cut the Elker edge to 25-15 at the intermission.
Curwensville, early in the second period, had reduced the Ridgway margin to 19-13 on a three pointer by
Devon Barrett and a basket by Avery Francisco.
A 6-2 run by Ridgway at the end of the second quarter secured the 10-point halftime lead.
The Elkers extended its lead back to 13, 28-15, on a three point shot by Mitchell with 6:40 to play before the fourth quarter, but moments later a trey by the Tide’s Christian Bakaysa cut the Elker margin back to 10 one more time at 28-18.
Ridgway utilized the free throw line in the final eight minutes, going seven of 13, to gain the 20 point win.
MacDonald helped with the Ridgway offense by adding 12 points.
Jake Terry was high point man for the Golden Tide with 12 tallies.
The junior varsity game was also won by the Elkers, as it defeated the Golden Tide by a score of 40-9.
Curwensville (3-4) returns home for a Friday game against the Rovers of Brockway at Patton Hall. Junior varsity gets underway at 6 pm with the varsity to immediately follow.
NOTE: Bakaysa made the All-Tourney team at the recent Freeport Christmas Tournament. The junior scored 22 points in the semi-final game against Freeport and added 10 in the consolation game against Mercyhurst Prep.
CURWENSVILLE – 32
Josh Terry 5 2-2 12, Devon Barrett 1 0-0 3, Noah Von Gunden 0 0-2 0, Christian Bakaysa 2 2-2 7, Avery Francisco 3 0-0 6, Nick Stewart 2 0-0 4, Jordan Demko 0 0-0 0, Dakota Bloom 0 0-0 0, Jeremy
Irwin 0 0-0 0, Nate McKendrick 0 0-0 0
TOTALS – 13 4-6 32
RIDGWAY – 52
Josh Thorwart 1 0-0 2, Neil MacDonald 2 8-13 12, Andy Buien 4 0-2 8, Daunte Allegreto 3 3-3 9, Johnny Mitchell 8 0-0 17, Will Thompson 1 0-0 2, C. J. Wickett 0 1-2 1, Aaron Hinton 0 0-0 0, Jake Reynolds 0 0-0 0, Parker Rohn 0 0-0 0, Matt Dush 0 0-0 0, Zack Zameroski 0 0-0 0, Cole
Salberg 0 0-0 0, Greg Simon 0 1-2 1
TOTALS – 19 13-20 52
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
CURWENSVILLE 6 9 9 8 32
RIDGWAY 19 6 14 13 52
THREE-POINTERS: CURWENSVILLE – 2 Barrett, Bakaysa RIDGWAY – 1 Mitchell
OFFICIALS: Greg Dauber, Dave Dellaquilla, Don Zilkotski
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/08 | @ Clearfield | 52 – 54 | 0 – 1 |
| 12/11 | WEST BRANCH | 57 – 54 ot | 1 – 1 |
| 12/15 | @ Mo Valley | 61 – 49 | 2 – 1 |
| 12/20 | GLENDALE | 82 – 47 | 3 – 1 |
| 12/28 | @ Freeport Tourney | ||
| 12/28 | vs. Freeport | 54 – 85 | 3 – 2 |
| 12/29 | vs. Mercyhurst Prep | 32 – 46 | 3 – 3 |
| 01/03 | @ Ridgway | 32 – 52 | 3 – 4 |
| 01/05 | BROCKWAY | ||
| 01/09 | DUBOIS CENTRAL CATH | ||
| 01/11 | HARMONY | ||
| 01/16 | @ Elk County Catholic | ||
| 01/19 | KANE | ||
| 01/22 | MO VALLEY | ||
| 01/23 | RIDGWAY | ||
| 01/26 | @ Brockway | ||
| 01/31 | @ Glendale | ||
| 02/02 | JOHNSONBURG | ||
| 02/06 | @ DuBois Central Catholic | ||
| 02/07 | @ West Branch | ||
| 02/09 | @ Sheffield | ||
| 02/12 | CLEARFIELD | ||
| 02/14 | @ Harmony |